Shen Wu
by Drakai
Summary: A warrior. He pledges his eternal servitude. A demon. She accepts. They even fall in love. An old legend, thought by many to be just a fairy tale. Too bad the legend moved to San Francisco.


"Do you think Shendu will succeed?"

Limbo. The Netherworld. However you want to call it, it is a place where demons go when they've been bad. Or, so the stories go. It is mostly an empty place, with no ceiling and no ground, filled with nothing but yellow sky and floating platforms.

The only known occupants at the moment were seven demon sorcerers. They once, along with their currently-expired brother, Shendu, ruled the entire world, or at least entire China, legends were pretty sketchy at that point in time. So they ruled with iron fists, or whatever they had that passed for fists, until the so-called Eight Immortals, heroes of legend, defeated and sealed them, each portal in different parts of the world, each with a special object belonging to that Immortal.

Shendu the Fire Demon was sealed in what was now called Hong Kong, in China, by the Immortal called Lü Dongbin by use of a jian, a Chinese straight sword. In an amusement park. Seriously.

Po Kong the Mountain Demon was sealed in Tokyo, Japan, in an ancient temple, by Elder Zhang Guo Lao by use of a drum. A very big drum.

Xiao Fung the Wind Demon was sealed in the dreaded Black Forest by Zhongli Quan with the help of a simple fan.

Tchang Zu the Thunder Demon was sealed inside what is now Hollywood, California by the patron of theatre (of course) Royal Uncle Cao, using a pair of castanets.

Tso Lan the Moon Demon was somehow sealed in the empty space between the Earth and the Moon by Immortal Woman He Xiangu using a lotus pod. How she was able to breathe up there was sadly lost in time.

Dai Gui the Earth Demon was sealed in the beautiful Pamplona, in Spain, by Lan Caihe, using a flower. It took the demon several centuries to get over the embarrassment, and still he hated the small plants.

His Wu the Sky Demon was sealed inside Boston, in a ballpark as a matter of fact, by Philosopher Han Xiang Zi. What a philosopher was doing at a ballpark was anyone's guess.

And finally, Bai Tza the Water Demon was sealed inside the Coliseum in Rome by Iron-Crutch Li Tiegnai, using a gourd filled with, ironically enough, water.

The Immortals used the mystical Pan'ku Box to seal the demons. An artifact made out of pure, good magic, which no evil being could handle. They thought that would be enough to hold them forever. They were wrong.

Through various malversations which are too numerous and varied to be listed here, Shendu, the slimiest of the brethren, managed to escape his seal, or escape being sealed altogether. Again, very old legend.

So what does that leave us with? Seven still-sealed demons and one slimy one dead and a ghost, just sent out to possess a human, Chung or something, and cursed to be bound to that human until the task of releasing his brethren is complete.

Xiao Fung, who had been the one to speak, looked around at his brothers and sisters.

"I do not believe so." Tso Lan stated in his calm, emotionless tone.

"Very comforting." His Wu deadpanned, drawing a chuckle from Po Kong, the biggest there.

"What about that little human morsel of yours, sister Bai?" The giant demon looked at the only other female.

"What of him?" The mermaid-like glared at her much larger sister.

"Well, could he not find a way out for us?" Xiao Fung said cautiously.

"He is a warrior. Not a Chi Wizard. But very well, I shall contact him." A large oval made of energy appeared in mid-air.

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In the human world at about the same time, in a large dojo in San Francisco as luck would have it, filled with wooden training dummies, a tall blonde man was practicing with a sword. As stated, he was very tall, almost two meters in height, with well-defined muscles suited for someone who'd been fighting for most of his life. He was dressed in blue pants and white sleeveless tank top. His hair was cut rather short, and it fell around his eyes in spiked bangs, tucked behind his ears at the moment, revealing his blue eyes. A sharp goatee was on his face and a jian in his right hand wielded with amazing skill as it cut through the wooden dummies. The metal the sword was made of was dark and strong, the guard had an engraving of one broken line above two solid ones and a sea-blue tassel was hanging off the pommel.

So concentrated was he on the task at hand (chopping wood, from a certain point of view) that he didn't notice a large oval appear in the air, and the seven demon heads in it watch the show.

After a few moments of silence, Bai Tza had enough and cleared her throat. The blonde snapped to attention, quickly turning around and aiming the sword in front of him, in the general direction of the noise. Seeing the images in the oval, he approached and kneeled, putting the sword in front of him.

"Mistress." His voice was smooth, deep and very strong.

"Stand, my servant. I have a task for you." The blonde stood straight, putting the jian back into its sheath.

"Listen well little human, the task will be difficult for one of your limited capabilities." Tso Lan sneered at him.

"You know very little of my capabilities, Moon Demon, even after all these centuries. I am the servant of my Mistress. Not yours. She will speak and I will listen."

"Dear Brother Tso, allow me to handle this." The Moon Demon grumbled to himself but conceited, floating off in the distance, followed one by one by the rest of the Sorcerers, leaving only Bai Tza and the blonde human.

"They have left." She looked off in the direction the other demons went, to be sure. Her voice wasn't nearly as harsh and biting as it was before, while her brothers and sisters were still observing. "Have you been well, Naruto?"

"Indeed Mistress." The now-named blonde smiled. "It is good to see you again after so long. I have… well."

"Yes?" She urged him on.

"Missed you." He finished quietly.

"I know" She gave him a surprisingly gentle smile for a fierce demon. "I have missed you too, my precious servant." Naruto returned the smile. "On to business. I have told my brethren you are only a warrior, so try to act the part."

"May I ask why? You know I am well versed in Japanese seal magic."

"Because if I had told them, they would pressure you, and in turn me, to act in a way we do not necessarily want to."

"We do not?" he raised an eyebrow. "I fail to understand Mistress, I though you wanted to be free."

"I do. But I will do it in my own way. I will not be in debt to any of my treacherous siblings, and I will not endanger my precious servant more than absolutely necessary by revealing to them too much."

"I am touched that you would think so highly of me, Mistress." He bowed his head.

"So _have_ you found anything?"

"No. I have spent the last hundred years since our last contact looking over the Seven Libraries in Japan known to possess scrolls and tomes dealing even remotely with anything I thought would help you. But no one seems to even know about that dimension."

"Seven Libraries?" Bai Tza blinked.

"There was an old legend in my home about seven very special libraries, each containing all knowledge one could ask about seven topics: Seals, Plains, Demons, Spirits, Summoning, Time, Space. I found them all, the first time in history to my knowledge, but even then… Absolutely nothing."

"Yes, I see the mistake in judgment you made."

"May I ask?"

"You have assumed Japanese knowledge and legends would help. We Demon Sorcerers are Chinese. The Immortals who sealed us are Chinese. Therefore, it follows that knowledge about us and all related to us would be Chinese. You should have focused your search on China, not Japan." Naruto blinked a few times before face palming, quickly falling to his knees and putting his head as low to the ground as he could.

"Dammit, I hadn't even thought about that. My deepest apologies Mistress."

"Naruto, please get up."

"But I have cost you years, decades that you could have been here in this world. I should be-"

"Naruto, calm down. It is completely expected you would make that assumption. You are Japanese after all. Please get up." She asked him again, gently but still somehow very forcefully.

"As you wish Mistress."

"You may end all your searches; my brother Shendu has found a way to free us all. You will follow him, he should be somewhere in your city. Do your best to make it seem as if you are helping him, but do not interfere. We must both play our parts well if we are to succeed in our endeavor."

"And if my hand is forced?"

"Use your best judgment." Naruto looked at the demon in surprise. "I have always trusted it, as I have trusted you. I cannot wait to be back there, with you my precious servant. Goodbye. And good luck; I hope to see you with my own eyes again, sooner rather than later." The magical oval disappeared.

"And I as well, Mistress."

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**Shen Wu means Divine Martial. It was one of the names of the Imperial Guard from the Tang Dynasty.**

**Bai Tza was always my favorite of the Demon Sorcerers. I know she's a little (ok, so not really little) OOC, but… well, you're just gonna have to deal with it. Here I am god. And that is so awesome.**

**If someone's wondering, there's still one more Jackie Chan Adventures crossover I'm writing. I really liked the cartoon.**


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